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I just love a good George Moneo post ... like this one!

yeah good post.. let me take the smoking issue a bit further and you can even use this in trans fat debate as well.. non smokers benefit from smokers.. non smokers have lower health/ life insurance premiums because of us smokers.. if no one smoked, there would be no reason for that discount.. non smokers benefit because we die earlier (on average).. we pay into social security but will not take as much out of it.. more is left to share for the non smokers.. think about it..

What gets me are all the pot-smokers who are liberals. Inhaling burning plant matter is inhaling burning plant matter is inhaling burning plant matter. If the Left does not want you to smoke tobacco, what makes one think they would leave marijuana alone---or rather, ever legalize it?

Bingo!

Exactly el Pitbull. If I want to smoke, drink, and eat myself to death it's no one else business. The problem with the left is conformity, they live their life within a rigid social structure where no differing view or lifestyle choice is acceptable and they can't stand it that most Americans really do get to do whatever they want.

Good piece. But do you really think they can remove trans fat? This stuff is everywhere... except in Whole Paycheck Market (I meant Whole Foods Market) where a pound of grapes is $8.99 compared to Publix which is $2.99. Believe me, I got suckered into that deal. I know for sure if they did (remove trans fats from foods), people WOULD lose weight, but not because of the food but because they would not be able to afford to eat.

Don't worry, it will never happen. They said the same thing about cell phones and cancer, yet the industry is too important to wipe off the planet.

By the way, the last time I checked, Altria Group (Phillip Morris) was trading at almost $77 and it has almost doubled in the last 2 yrs.

Smoke up.

Andy, I agree with you. But it's the attempt itself to control that pisses me off.

I've already commented on this extensively. I call these folks the pleasure police. They cannot stand others' happiness. They want us to be miserable like them; to be vegetarians eating organic tofu and sipping chardonnay. Mierda!

Now we have this stupid constitutional amendment banning smoking of cigars in bars which is moronic. Let the business decide if it wants to allow smoking or not. I don't mind having a requirement that they have air filters. Most cigar friendly places had those. It was great. Now I have to smoke outside or even in our homes cause these bumbaclots are offended. Heck, if the pleasure police can smell the smoke from your backyard 1 block away....arrest you they will. Then they will band BBQ's. Soon they will ban meat...no steaks folks. It will clog the ateries. No more fried foods either. No more sugar. It causes diabetes. So instead, why don't we just enjoy our tofu/soy baked faux meat patty on a multigrain roll with baked potato on it and sprouts . . . folks, the Liberal version of the Cuban Frita.

Put away the scotch and beer. Brain damage. the weed is ok, good for glaucoma.

The pleasure police cannot stand self reliance and choice. They feel we are so ignorant that we are incapable of making a choice. We don't need the pleasure police to coddle us like a friggin infant.

Next they will ban booze and we'll be stuck with their anti-utopian hell . . . see e.g. Berkeley California....

Winston Churchill...please come back and save us from this our darkest hour!

George, not to challenge your point, but more to open the conversaton wider. You talk about the government's attempt to control your life. But hasn't that happened already to a big extent. Correct me if I am wrong, but the average American crosses over 70 surveillance cameras per day, the government is doing wire tapping, we are monitored every time we enter the internet, so on and so forth…
Having said so (plus the comments on this blog), don’t you think the government does this to regulate people that cannot regulate themselves so that they don’t become a burden to society? I mean, I can go home and drown myself on mojitos, yet I know getting behind the wheel of a car would be dangerous to myself and others; yet too many people don’t see that.

Comments please.
Thanks.

Believe it or not, Whole Foods has the cheapest cat food in town. Keeps my little black cats (okay, one of them is anything BUT little) well-fed and keeps my wallet fat.

Andy, interesting points that I thought of when writing this. I'll address them later today.

A few things before I write, just so that I don’t get ridiculed for being a crazy liberal: I’m not, by any means, a liberal, and I agree that the trans-fat thing is ridiculous and that it’s not going to do anything to curb obesity anyway. My father holds stock in Philip Morris, and yes, that class-action lawsuit against tobacco companies was also pretty ridiculous. The fact that these people got away with blaming some companies for their decisions is crazy.
That said, I really, really love smoking bans.
I’m a nonsmoker who’s prone to colds/subsequent sinus infections, and I absolutely hated coming home from a bar in college (in Chicago pre-smoking ban) and reeking of cigarette smoke and sniffling and sneezing. I moved to northern New Jersey after college and it was SO nice to go out in NYC and not come home smelling like cigarettes. Seriously, that stuff just stuck to every piece of clothing. My hair too. It was awful. And I hated it because I was suffering the consequences of other people’s choices to smoke. My choices were: a) stay home and have no social life or b) go out with friends and get sick.
It’s easy to say “leave it up to the businesses,” but I doubt anyone would make the first move to go nonsmoking and risk alienating customers when they can just go down the street and drink/smoke somewhere else. Maybe there are enough of us nonsmokers with sensitive noses to support a business that decided to go nonsmoking, but I doubt that a prudent business owner would take that risk. Maybe I’m wrong, I don’t know. But I get the feeling that this type of thing would have to be legislated.
I think the government does have some authority to regulate smoking because yes, it’s your choice, but it does directly affect others, although it does scare me that it can be a slippery slope, as we’re seeing now. I was against smoking bans in the beginning, back when this was a new thing, precisely because of what you said in the post. Maybe it’s ideologically inconsistent to support smoking bans, but, well, I still love them.

Smoking and the effects of second hand smoke are one thing, and banning trans fats another thing entirely. Why should the government give a crap about what someone decides to put IN THEIR OWN BODIES without any harm whatsoever to an "innocent bystander".

I see both sides of the issue regarding the smoking ban, but I am in favor of it due to the effects on others (yes there IS such a thing as second-hand smoke...sorry guys). But why can't we as a society use a little common sense every once in a while and know where to draw the line?

First, there is absolutely no scientific proof that second-hand smoke harms people. None. Believe me, as a smoker, I've read all of the research. One salient fact is always missing from the hysteria about this: the smoke that comes out of a smoker is already filtered. There is more noxious gas coming out of the exhaust pipes of cars (or Democrats) than cigarettes.

Second, the tobacco settlement was nothing more than a Mafia-style shakedown of a legal industry. If you were in favor of it, then you have absolutely zero motive for criticizing another. Once you open the door, that's it.

Third, wanting to ban one and not the other is intellectually dishonest. Some people can talk you to death about the dangers of trans-fats, or the undigested meat in the bowels of meat-eaters, or the benefits of a vegan lifestyle. Fine. Eating meat is my choice. If you want to eat soy and vegetables. Fine. That is your choice. However, when the government begin regulating what what we ingest then we are on the fast road to fascism and socialism indeed.

Fourth, personal responsibility. Personal responsibility. Personal responsibility. That is what all of us have forgotten. All of us pay a price for our actions. It's none of the government's business to instruct me on the danger of what I am doing.

I'm sorry, but your arguments go up in smoke (pun intended).

George, next time I see you, I'll bring you a fine cigar!

George - I think like you 100%.

Let ME make decisions about MYSELF as long as I'm not hurting anyone. Let me drink, let me smoke, let me gamble, et cetera.

This trans-fat issue is a little different in that most non-naturally-occuring trans-fats (partially hydrogenized oils and fats) are used simply because they're easier and cheaper to produce. There are alternatives that are just as tasty (if not tastier) that are not so detrimentally bad for you. Think of it as a cigar laced with a teensy bit of arsenic. If you can have the full taste of the cigar without the poison, you'd take it, yes?

Now, I whole-heartedly agree that trans-fats should not be oulawed altogether, but i think foods with trans-fats should come with a warning label like cigarettes (and restaurants should clearly mark such food) and perhaps there should be incentives for food purveyors to come up with healthier alternatives.

Sure it's easy to spot the unhealthy trans-fats in a carnival's deep-fried twinkie. In a case like that, you know what you're getting yourself into. But when it's hidden in products that you don't expect it to be found in, when the same product could retain 100% of its taste without the unhealthy trans-fats, then that's a problem.

So I say NO to making trans-fats illegal and YES to clear, proper labeling and non-trans-fat incentives so that consumers can have alternatives and make informed decisions.

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